Realjones outlined the fastest and most expensive way to get to GM scribing. Since you don't lose mana on a failure, failing alot of flamestrike scrolls makes sense; however, you end up with nothing that you can sell.

As Realjones mentioned, you will lose 65,000 gold or so getting your inscription up using the fast method. There's a slower, but cheaper way to go, that should end up making you a profit in the end.

Here's what I think is the best curve for making profit:

0 to 30 buy skill from mage shop for 300 gold

30 to 52 recall scrolls, and sell the results for 50 gp each. You'll get about 50% yield on your recall scrolls. You should be able to get to 52, and with your sales neither lose nor gain money.

Between 52 and 60, you can continue with recall for slow gains, or switch to mark for alot of failures (i.e. lost money). I chose to do some 5th circle spells like reveal. I did 200 reveal attempts through this period, and sold them to the NPC mage shops.)

60 to 70 mark scrolls. Sell the results for 60 to 70 gp each. You should come out even as far as money goes through this stage also.

70 to 85 gate scrolls, and sell the results for 80 to 90 gold each. You should be able to break even on this stage.

85 to 90 a mixture of gate and res scrolls.

90 to GM all resurection scrolls. You'll end up with about 800 rez scrolls left over sitting in your bank. They should sell for 200 gp steadily, but slowly. So, eventually you'll break even; however, for the short term this step will cost you about 30,000 gold, and will take about 2400 attempts at rez. (Howevever, if you sell all your rez scrolls, and you'll make about 160,000).

This path will take you about 4500 to 5000 scrolls and about 25 power hours. It takes longer, and with more raw materials, but you don't lose money. If you sell all those rez scrolls you should be able to make about 120,000 profit.

that method is much better if you dont have the initial cash onhand. And thanks for posting that, I wanted an alternate method of raising it, and I was hoping that someone would post another way. So thanks for coming through

Nothing like the good ole days of fishing. Fish all night and come back in the morning to find yourself dead to a mongbat

forget just res. do all 8's. try to even it out. if you do any lich hunting you can collect a ton of 4th thru 7th scrolls. then with your 8's you go buy 1 thru 3 and sell full spell books.
meanwhile you can have vendor with 8's on them at 200 each. they will sell alot faster than a ton of res scrolls.
you make a profit as you raise your skill

@Gamma Zulu
Would your way work good out of power hour too ?
I am building up a pure mage mit inscription and alchemy, so i dont have time to waste powerhours for inscription at the moment.
Lamarod onf Europa

well in an old thread there where many comments onthe fastest way to gain )

best way on low levels everyone agreed on )

0 to 30 buy it
30 to 40 copy books (only 2 books needed copy continuosly from one in the other)

i did recalls till gains stopped
did a few lvl 5 but started real son on marks
stayed with that till no real gains then started gate
gate CAN get you to GM but slow around 85 you can make lvl 8 so why not use it i made mainly lvl 7 and when full spellbooks needed lvl8

I have alwasy felt that time is money. Even in UO time is money. The faster one gets to GM the faster one can make money. The less time one trains on a skill the more time they have to practice another skill. More time not practiceing means more time selling or more time in dungeons. Dont forget we also fork out 10 bucks to p[lay this game every 30 days. Less time wasting on skill growth means more value for your 10 bucks. I know you didnt read that description on the fron tof your game box and see "...and you can spend hundreds of hours practicing skills to get them to GM." The approach of less money is better is off in my book. I made a GM mage in less then 2 weeks from hard work. This to me is a goal accieved. No matter what I do from here on out with this mage I will be 4 weeks richer then a mage thats created 4 weeks from now! Dont get me wrong not everyone has the resources to achieve this but all resources should always be devoted to the task at hand.

Just when you think you got it all idiot proof, they go and invent a better idiot!

Just one thing about the 2 methods... if you end up with like 1000 assorted 8ths they arent a lost cause. You can sell heaps of assorted 8ths singally and also chuck em in the runebooks you make for a few months....... should get the deficit almost out of the red not to mention time saving in making 8ths when you wanna make cash later on!!

Ok, I am currently at 96.3 real skill and here is how I got there, hope it helps.

First of all I noticed that macroing this perticular skill will not maximumize your potential skill gain during power hour. I tried it and gained far less because even a GM Scribe will fail 8th circle spells from time to time. So it is kinda a pain to set up a macro to inscribe a Earthquake, meditate, then inscribe Energy Vortex, meditate and so on. You have to figure meditation time in the macro even if you fail.

Ok, here is what I did to get to where I am at now. I bought 30 skill. Failed recall scrolls to around 60- to 65ish. then I started making 1 Mark scroll and 1 Energy Bolt scroll(this is why I currently have like 196 e-bolt scrolls in the bank). This got me to roughly 75ish. Then I started 1 Gate and 1 E-Bolt. this got me to 85 skill. After 85 skill I only scribed 8th circle spells(lots of failures, but skill gains were faster). Now, after 92ish skill, go to the mage shop, buy one blank spell book and put one of each 8th circle spells in it(makes it alot faster and easier to work with). Go through the circle. Inscribe EQuake then EV, then Res, and so on and keep repeating.

The first day I tried this I gained like 1.5. Second day, .4, third day 2.1. Fourth day .3.

So you can see the gains will vary from day to day. Just keep yourself well fed and keep mixing it up. Variety is the key to maximum skill gain after 90 real skill.

I've been a GM scribe for well over a year and a half now so as far as good methods go, I haven't made a new scribe to test.

(Things have changed alot since then)

One thing though that should be mentioned, for those who do adventure with their scribes, make scrolls. While sitting still waiting, make the scrolls you'll need for a fight or whatever and use them. You should still get a gain every so often and failing on casting shouldn't happen This is one thing that will never change, the use of scrolls you make while adventuring. At higher levels you may not see a gain at all, but the reliable use of scrolls can save your neck at times and any gain is a good gain Besides, you were going to try to cast that anyways right?

1) How do I raise inscription (is it affected by the anti-macro code)?
2) How much and how long does it take to GM inscription?
3) How do I make runebooks?
4) How do I copy/make full spellbooks?
5) How much should I sell runebooks, scrolls, spellbooks, etc for?
6) What's the deal with inscription- it adds a bonus to Protection and RA?
7) How much magery do I need to scribe each circle?

And now the answers:

1) How do I raise inscription (is it affected by the anti-macro code)?

Inscription is not affected by the anti macro code (meaning that you do not have to move around to gain), but is still best raised in the power hour.

Method 1: To raise it in the power hour, from 0 to 40 copy blank books. To copy blank books you need 2 blank books (obviously, even more obvious use BOOKS and not spellbooks). Then all you do is double click one and target the other. From 40-70, make Flamestrike scrolls (you will need 66.1 magery). You will never successfully make any FS scrolls until you reach 70, however, in the power hour you gain from failures, and so since you will be failing a lot, you will gain like wildfire. From 70-100 you should make a variety of 8th circle scrolls (you will need 80.1 magery). Like FS, you wont be successful until 83 or so, but youll still gain.

Method 2: Another, longer method of raising inscription that will work if you dont have the cash necessary to do the first method. 0 to 30 buy skill from mage shop for 300 gold. From 30 to 52 recall scrolls, and sell the results for 50 gp each. You'll get about 50% yield on your recall scrolls. You should be able to get to 52, and with your sales neither lose nor gain money. Between 52 and 60, you can continue with recall for slow gains, or switch to mark for alot of failures (i.e. lost money). 60 to 70 mark scrolls. Sell the results for 60 to 70 gp each. You should come out even as far as money goes through this stage also. 70 to 85 gate scrolls, and sell the results for 80 to 90 gold each. You should be able to break even on this stage. 85 to 90 a mixture of gate and res scrolls. 90 to GM all 8th circle scrolls. [thanks to Gama Zulu for this second method].

2) How much and how long does it take to GM inscription?

It takes approximately 14 power hours using 3500 blank scrolls (and lotsa regs) at a total cost of 65K. You will also end up with around 1000 8th circle scrolls.

The second method will take you about 4500 to 5000 scrolls and about 25 power hours. It takes longer, and with more raw materials, but you don't lose money right off the bat.

With both methods, after you sell off your 8th circle scrolls, you will come out with an overall profit during your course of raising inscription.

If you can make lvl 7 scrolls once in a while you should be able to make runebooks.

4) How do I copy/make full spellbooks?

You cannot copy spellbooks, you must make all the scrolls and then drag them into the book one at a time (it is a very fun activity).

5) How much should I sell runebooks, scrolls, spellbooks, etc for?

The general consensus on prices seems to be as follows:
Circles 1-3: These can be bought in mage shops, no need for a scribe to sell them, on most you wont even make any profit
Circle 4: 40-45 gp (recall from 40-60gp)
Circle 5: 45-55 gp
Circle 6: 55-70 gp (Marks 55-75gp)
Circle 7: 65-75 gp (gates 65-85 gp)
Circle 8: 175-250gp
Runebooks: some charge 100gp per charge, others a flat rate (like 500gp), no matter how many charges it has
Full Spell books: 5000 gold

6) What's the deal with inscription- it adds a bonus to Protection and RA?

Inscription adds a bonus to protection and reactive armor. At GM inscription, this results to 25 more points of damage absorbing ability being added

7) How much magery do I need to scribe each circle?

You need the same base level to scribe a spell as you do to cast it. These levels can be found on the Stratics Magery page.

Can someone tell me how to copy books? And dont say its in the FAQ... the FAQ tells you to double click the book and target the other, which only gets you a open spell book and no target cursor... Please help...

I agree that with the failures, and having to build med time into a macro you could lose alot of time if you fail. But I have found a way to macro (attended) my 8th circle spells and not lose the time with meditating after a failure. This only works with UO Assist and only works ATTENDED. I apologize if this is old news to everyone.

In UO Assist I have made a macro for scribing each spell in the circle, as well as recall, mark, and gate. Each macro is assigned a number (you can store up to 16 macros). Each looks like this..

Use skill...Inspription
Target (type)...blank scroll
Menu choice...appropriate spell to scribe
Pause...3000
Use skill...Meditation
Insert Extra...Wait until mana is 95(I scribe with wizard
hat for max of 105 mana)
Pause...10000 by the end of this pause my mana is at 105 and
any delay between skill use is gone

My #1 macro is for EarthQuake, #2 E Vortex etc etc.
I push #1 to play the first macro. If I fail to scribe the spell, there is a 3 sceond delay before I meditate, during this pause I hit the stop macro button. This keeps me from meditating and I can immediately hit the next macro button. I usually hit the stop button after the first success anyway as I have enough mana to get 2 in before meditating.

This works for me mainly because I dont like all the pointing and clickling.

im not calling you an idiot...but when it says books it is understood that i mean books, not spellbooks, especially since i say "spellbooks" elsewhere in the faq. I do not know how i could have made this any clearer.

Nothing like the good ole days of fishing. Fish all night and come back in the morning to find yourself dead to a mongbat

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